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Show 40 a little to the probability of its enforcement if we p1·ess very hard "this religious discussion." It is impossible that the slaves can be easy under the agitation of the question. They know it, feel it, and will act upon it. A continuance of this discussion will cause insurrection, whether such object be intended or not. I will not enumerate the reasons for this assertion. They have been elsewhere presented, and are obvious enough. The press and the pen shed their influence everywhere. Fanatics are hardy enough to go into the slave country ; and their very deaths by a mob convey knowledge to the slave. The discussion of Slavery, in the manner and with the principles of our autho1·, will, I venture to affirm, set those materials on fire, which in their own nature are almost inflammable enough to blaze by spontaneous combustion. Now look at the consequences here, as well as in the slave country. Would the cause of morality be promoted by the crimes of insurrection and a servile war ? Are the sufferings of the slaves, in which we are invited to feel so much sympathy, comparable to what would be endured by our own laboring poor, if, for a single year the Southern crop shoulcl fail for want of cultivation ? If the slaves must toil with wholesome and reasonable labor, or our own people must starve, though they double their exertions, which alternative does a wise and sound morality direct us to choose ? This sensibility for the negro may be well enough when it can be indulged without injnry to our own flesh and blood ; but it is the poor and sickly oifspring of a diseased mind, when it passes over the deeper and nearer suiferings of our fri ends with comparative indifference. Such a false sympathy is, however, the constant indication of the book before us. Dr. Channing tells a tale intended to raise this pity. "1 once passed a colored woman at worl;: on u plantation, who was singing npparcnt\y with animation, and whose general manners would have led me to set her down as the happiest of the gang. I said to her, " Your work seems 41 pleasant to you." She replied, "No, Massa." Supposing that she referred to something particularly disagreeable in her immediate occupation, J said to her, "'!'ell me, then, what part part of your work is most pleasant." She .a:Jswered, with much emphasis, ".7\'"o part pleasant. \Vc forcerl to do it." ~ hese few words let me into the heart of the sla:vc. I saw under its apparent llghtuess a human hea rt. '' And if th~ woman had been taken from her gang, and put down safely 111 State street, and there told she was free, would she not be equally forced to work ? \Vould she not be_s urr~und ed by a busy and active population , moving through dmly tod and lal:>or by the same force ? "Ji'orcerl to rlo it "! How many of our own people arc glad of the opportunity of bemg forced to labor. . P~ssibly it 'may be found that the description of the abohuomsts which our author has drawn, is the pictu1·e of his own book. He bas " fallen into the common error of enthusiasts ~hat of exaggerating their object, of feeling as if no evil ex~ Is ted but that which they opposed, and as if no guilt could be compared w1th that of countenancing and upholding it." . The VIew wh1ch I take of the moral duty of an American Citizen, m regard to the discussion of Slavery, is to leave it to the regulation of those in whose territories it exists. I feel that our Constitution was a compromise, in which we agreed that each State should in its own domestic aJrairs be sovereign and independent ; and that it is the highest violation of all mor~l principle to infringe on this obligation. I cannot ~·econclle It to my conscience, while I daily and hourly enJOY the blessmgs of this republican government, to take back any part of the price that was paid fo1· it. In ~II c.odes of morality honesty holds the first place, and I deem It d~shonest, as it is dishonorable, to do that by indirect means wh1ch 1 am prohibited from doing openly and avowedly before th.e world. If insurrection breaks out among tho slaves -If war and its atrocities are the consequence- if that mass o~ human beings are induced to act out the principle~ of aboht10n, and seize by force the rights and liberties which they are told by a preacher of the gospel are their's ll\ 6 ' |